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Sylvia Plath Event: Northampton (Mass) 4/13/2011

The following was recently sent to me for your consideration. The event will be at the Forbes Library in Northampton, Mass. on Wednesday 13 April, and starts at 7 P.M.

Join us for an evening inspired by twentieth century poet Sylvia Plath. Coolidge Room.

Karen V. Kukil, Associate Curator of Special Collections at Smith College, will give a general introduction to Plath’s poetry entitled, “The hot steamy drench of the day: Plath on Poetry.”

Cornelia Pearsall, a Professor of English at Smith College, will give a talk entitled “Plath’s Arrow.”

Poet Nancy K. Pearson will read both new poems and... work from her book, Two Minutes of Light, published by Perugia Press, http://www.perugiapress.com/, which is based in Florence.

Karen V. Kukil, Associate Curator of Special Collections at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, edited the Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 1950-1962, published by Faber and Faber in London and Anchor Books in New York in 2000. The creative marriage of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes was the focus of a collaborative exhibition co-curated by Karen Kukil and Stephen Enniss at the Grolier Club in 2005. The accompanying catalog, “No Other Appetite”: Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes and the Blood Jet of Poetry, won the 2007 Division One Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibition Award. For additional information, see Ms. Kukil’s website.

Cornelia Pearsall is a Professor of English at Smith College, specializing in Victorian literature and culture. Her book Tennyson's Rapture was published by Oxford University Press, and she is currently working on several other scholarly projects, including a book on poetry and imperialism and another on poetry and war.

Nancy K. Pearson’s first book of poems, Two Minutes of Light, won the 2009 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Her book has been selected as a Must-Read from the 9th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards. Pearson has received numerous fellowships and awards including a 2010 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and two seven-month poetry fellowships at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Originally from Chattanooga, TN, she now lives on Cape Cod with her partner.

The evening is part of the Local History/Local Novelists series being held at Forbes Library through May, curated by Forbes Writer in Residence, Susan Stinson. The final evening in the eight month series, on May 4, will be a celebration of local novelists with Anthony Giardina, Cathi Hanuaer and Frederick Reiken. For more information, visit www.forbeslibrary.org or call 413-587-1017. All events are free and open to all.

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